"Blessed are ye when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and
shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for My sake."
"Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven:
for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you."
These troubles of His followers, which Jesus our Lord mentions, are all
summed up in the words "for My sake."
And here, it seems to me, is a key which will open the prison doors of
many a trial.
Our Lord tells us that whosoever will come after Him must take up his
cross and follow Him.
"For My sake!" He says to us so tenderly.
"Take My yoke upon you," He says again.
And what was His yoke? It was doing the Heavenly Father's Will. Bearing
that heavy, bitter Cross to redeem the world which God loved so much
that He gave His Son. Leaving His glory in Heaven for thirty-three
years, that He might show us how much the Father loved us, and to
encourage us to work and bear for His sake.
"God, for Christ's sake," has forgiven us: and if in this world there
comes to us reproach of suffering, "for His sake," shall we not meet it
joyfully and patiently, remembering the words of this last Beatitude,
"Great is your reward in Heaven"?
If there was one man more than another who was persecuted for Christ's
sake, it was the Apostle Paul. Have you ever read the list of his
sufferings?
"In labours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more
frequent, in death oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes
save one. Thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice
I suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep; in
journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils
by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the
city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils
among false brethren; in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often,
in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.
"Besides those things that are without, that which cometh upon me
daily, the care of all the Churches."
And then, in another letter, he says "I can do all things through
Christ, Which strengtheneth me."
All things! Then there is not a temptation, or a sorrow, or a
disappointment, or a task, that is not included in that "all things"
which the strength of Christ will enable us to do, and bear.
The Last Beatitude.
The last Beatitude—which means blessed—ends up with the word Rejoice!
Those who follow and serve Jesus Christ here, have the present
possession of exceeding joy; and as they follow Him, He leads them into
the Exceeding Joy of the Great Reward in Heaven!